Bear cub gets trapped, dies in north Boulder backyard pool

Cub's mother breaks into coop, eats family's pet chickens

Colorado Parks and Wildlife suspects the bear in this photo, taken May 21 near Wonderland Lake, is the mother of the cub that drowned Saturday.
(Camera file photo)

A black bear cub drowned in a north Boulder swimming pool Saturday night, shortly before its mother got into a backyard coop and killed several chickens, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has confirmed.

Officials said the cub drowned in a pool behind a home near the 700 block of Juniper Avenue, while the coop break-in apparently took place a few blocks away.

According to Parks and Wildlife, the mother and her two cubs had spent most of the day Saturday on a Juniper Avenue property, and both incidents occurred overnight.

Of the drowning, spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said, "There was a pool cover, and I believe the cub got stuck underneath it. This is just kind of a freak accident. Sometimes (cubs) do get into trouble like this since they're little guys."

On a message board for residents of Wonderland Hills, the neighborhood just north of Juniper Avenue, District Wildlife Manager Kristin Cannon wrote she had "never heard of a bear, even a cub, drowning in a swimming pool before.

"Normally, they are very good swimmers," Cannon added. "This is a very unfortunate accident."

The cub's mother, meanwhile, proceeded to eat an undisclosed number of chickens.

"The folks had raised those chickens since they were little, so I think they were pretty upset," Churchill said.

Bears eating livestock is not uncommon, and Churchill said Parks and Wildlife has spoken with the family about reinforcing their coop to prevent a future attack.

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"People always need to be diligent who live on the west side of Broadway, and make sure they're doing what they can to keep bears from being attracted to their homes," she said.

The mother and her surviving cub were spotted again in the area Sunday night and are thought to have been hanging around north Boulder for the last couple of months. Cannon said she believes they are the same bears spotted May 21 near Wonderland Lake and as recently as July 1 at the intersection of Jay Road and Diagonal Highway.